Negotiations between Redmond-based software giant Microsoft and Sunnyvale-based search provider Yahoo! have been going back and forth for years, but now they have finally reached a conclusion. The two companies announced the other day that they struck a deal which, as Yahoo! puts it, will “improve the Web search experience for users and advertisers, and deliver sustained innovation to the industry.” That translates into one simple fact: for the next decade (that’s 10 years) Yahoo! search will be powered by Microsoft. Yahoo! in turn will become the “exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.”

“This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry. And I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development. Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides. Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities and mobile experiences,” commented Yahoo!’s CEO, Carol Bartz.

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Exclusive access to Yahoo!’s search technologies, for the next 10 years, will be granted to Microsoft. These technologies may then be integrated with Microsoft’s own search engine, Bing, making Bing “the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites.”

According to Bartz, this translates into a better search experience, better competition (since Google dominates 70% of search), and better Yahoo! products. Now that Yahoo! Search is powered by Microsoft, the company can focus on improving its other offerings – like the new Yahoo! homepage, mail, finance, news, sports, entertainment, mobile, and so on.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says that the deal will attract more users and more advertisers to Bing and push Bing in the right direction as far as displaying relevant search results and relevant ads goes.

“Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company. Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we’ve created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there’s so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search,” commented Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer.

And now, some pictures:

The official press release of the Yahoo! – Microsoft deal is available here.

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